Needing Nehemiah?

 I keep books and other reading materials in the bathroom. The older I get, the more time I have to read.

The latest thing that I read was "10 Minutes to knowing the Men and Women of the Bible" which is part of the "Bare Bones Bible Bios" series, and I thought that I liked alliteration.

The other day I read the chapter about Nehemiah. Given my belief that history is circular, and that the future is in the past, I was compelled to read the Book of Nehemiah after reading the "10 Minutes Book". The Book of Nehemiah is not one of the longer books of the Bible, but it still took a little longer than the few minutes the chapter in "10 Minutes" took. 

So, what did I learn? Nehemiah was a Jew who was serving in the government of Persia as a Cupbearer to the king. As Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem from Persia, Nehemiah found that the city of Jerusalem was in terrible shape. The walls of Jerusalem had been in ruins for more than 125 years. Because Jerusalem had no walls, it was held in contempt by other cities and nations. 

The conditions of 450 B.C. were much like those of the world today. If your nation has no borders, it has no respect from other nations who vigorously enforce their borders. If you can't define your territory, you have no territory. To help his people, Nehemiah gets the Persian king to let him go to Jerusalem as governor. 

Nehemiah convinces the people of Jerusalem that they have God's support and that they can rebuild the walls. The people around Jerusalem were opposed to the walls being rebuilt. They threatened to attack the Jews as they rebuilt the walls. Nehemiah armed the workers, and they took turns guarding each other as they rebuilt the walls. Led by Nehemiah they are able to rebuild the city's walls in only 52 days.

In addition to the rebuilding of the walls, Nehemiah led a spiritual revitalization of the nation. He made the rich give back land that they had taken from others and brought back the ban on interest on loans. Nehemiah's trust in God spread among the people of Jerusalem and brought back the residents' pride in their city.

So, what can we take away from all of this today? First, we need borders to define our country. In the last three years, more than 7 million people have illegally entered our country.  We are fighting a proxy war in the Ukraine to keep Russians out of the Ukraine, but we allow millions of illegals into our country. How can this make sense? Second, our nation needs a spiritual revival. We need to admit that we have taken the wrong road. People abhor organized religion but celebrate a life without any moral standards. It is not working.

It's time to secure our borders. If we are willing to use military force to secure the border in the Ukraine, we need to do the same thing here. We need to stop importing drugs and the criminals who deal in them. It's time to restore our nation to the glory of the past. 

Joe Biden is NOT our Nehemiah. We need leaders who want to restore the greatness of America. It's time to send those who don't believe packing. Maybe Coach Prime has the right question/slogan. "Do you believe?"